John Coates, who is also president of the Australian Olympic Committee, will determine composition of inquiry

UCI logo on white

The UCI has revealed that John Coates, President of the International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), will be recommending the composition and members of the independent commission that the governing body has ordered to be set up in the wake of the Lance Armstrong affair.

With the UCI itself implicated by the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s Reasoned Decision in the Armstrong case in connection with its alleged collusion in covering up a suspect test for EPO by the disgraced cyclist as well as its decision to accept donations totalling $125,000 from him, senior figures in the world of sport have urged it to ensure that the commission is fully independent.

Those include Brian Cookson, President of British Cycling and a member of the UCI’s management committee which ordered the commission to be set up a little less than a fortnight ago, and John Fahey, President of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Besides his role at ICAS/CAS, Coates is also President of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), and has urged a hard-line approach against doing, last week tabling a motion to be debated at an AOC meeting later this month that would require all potential Australian Olympians to sign a declaration, under oath, that they have never been involved in doping.

As The Australian newspaper points out, in the event that any such declarations are subsequently proved to have been made falsely, legislation regarding statements made under oath in jurisdictions such as New South Wales could result in criminal proceedings being brought against an athlete and even a potential prison sentence for anyone found guilty of an offence.

In a statement released today, the UCI said:

The Commission will comprise three members: the first and its chair will be a respected senior lawyer; the second will be a forensic accountant, who will be recommended by the chair; and, the third will be an experienced sports administrator. All three members will be independent of cycling.

When appointed, the members of the Independent Commission alone will decide the final terms of reference of its wide ranging remit. The UCI has drawn up draft terms of reference which addresses the main issues raised by the USADA report into Lance Armstrong.

Mr Coates has recommended a number of senior legal figures to be the potential chair of the Independent Commission, as well as providing names for the sports administrator member. The UCI has already begun contacting the people Mr Coates has nominated to establish their availability. They will be announced as soon as the Commission is formally convened.

The UCI has committed that the Commission’s final report and recommendations will be published no later than 1 June 2013.

The President of ICAS was approached to recommend the composition and membership of the Independent Commission as the head of the institution supervising the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the world’s highest sports court, recognized as independent and impartial by the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

UCI President, Pat McQuaid, commented: “We would like thank John Coates for his recommendations, which we will follow to the letter.”

“The purpose of this independent commission is to look into the findings of the USADA report and ultimately to make conclusions and recommendations that will enable the UCI to restore confidence in the sport of cycling and in the UCI as its governing body.”

He added: “Cycling is one of the world’s most popular sports, both for participants and spectators and it has a bright future. Those who will define that future can be found among the current generation of riders who have chosen to prove that you can compete and win clean.”

Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.

7 comments

Sort by

The Rumpo Kid[589 posts]4 years ago

0 likes

Unless I'm reading this wrong, it looks like the UCI have drafted the "terms of reference" from which they are allowing the Independent Commission to pick and mix.

@The rumpo kid
Interesting - contrast Brian Cookson's understanding at the end of last month:

"We are looking at a commission of three to investigate everything and anything that needs looking at and, in fact, once those three are appointed they will be invited to draw up their own terms of reference. Nothing will be off limits."

"When appointed, the members of the Independent Commission alone will decide the final terms of reference of its wide ranging remit. The UCI has drawn up draft terms of reference which addresses the main issues raised by the USADA report into Lance Armstrong."

final terms of reference are totally up to the independent commission members

Meanwhile UCI are contacting potential members asking them to take part in a commission in a field which is at least partly unfamiliar terrain. To help here are some draft terms of reference which may help prospective commissioners understand the general area of the issues, and which should they be part of the commission they can totally ignore,

In announcing this commission on the 26th of October, the UCI said that "appropriate terms of reference" were to be agreed between the body setting up the commission and the management board of the UCI. I would like to know more about the "draft terms" the UCI has drawn up. Are these prescriptive, proscriptive, or just a rough guide that the commission can ignore if it wishes? Until told otherwise I'll just continue to think the worst of the UCI. It's a position that hasn't let me down so far.

Loath as most people are - and with good reason - to accept that the UCI might actually be following a decent process this time (as opposed to the last review by a pal of Verbruggen's), it looks like they might actually be doing so.

They called upon John Coates to propose names for the Commission - he did so. He's not a UCI man - that was the first point of independence.

They've adopted his proposal and have appointed a Commission, and really it does seem on the face of it that they are truly independent. This is an impressive panel.